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73-522: AT&T Mobility, LLC , also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T , is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States . AT&T Mobility is the third largest wireless carrier in the United States , with 116 million subscribers as of September 30, 2024. The company

146-420: A DBA must be registered with a local or state government, or both, depending on the jurisdiction. For example, California, Texas and Virginia require a DBA to be registered with each county (or independent city in the case of Virginia) where the owner does business. Maryland and Colorado have DBAs registered with a state agency. Virginia also requires corporations and LLCs to file a copy of their registration with

219-467: A DBA statement, though names including the first and last name of the owner may be accepted. This also reduces the possibility of two local businesses operating under the same name, although some jurisdictions do not provide exclusivity for a name, or may allow more than one party to register the same name. Note, though, that this is not a substitute for filing a trademark application. A DBA filing carries no legal weight in establishing trademark rights. In

292-513: A GSM-1900 network prior to the acquisition of AT&T Wireless , through a joint venture known as GSM Facilities . The network sharing agreement allowed Cingular to offer local service in northern New Jersey and New York City and T-Mobile USA to offer service in California and Nevada. On May 25, 2004, Cingular and T-Mobile USA announced their intention to dissolve the agreement contingent on Cingular's successful acquisition of AT&T Wireless,

365-506: A company created following FairPoint's acquisition, was an operating company wholly owned by Northern New England Telephone Operations. In December 2016 FairPoint was purchased by Consolidated Communications , and the combined company operates under the Consolidated Communications name. In 2010, Frontier Communications acquired Frontier West Virginia , one of the original Bell Operating Companies formerly known as

438-476: A contract, invoice, or cheque, they must also add the legal name of the business. Numbered companies will very often operate as something other than their legal name, which is unrecognizable to the public. In Chile , a trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Ireland , businesses are legally required to register business names where these differ from

511-550: A customer base of 46 million people at the time, making Cingular the largest wireless provider in the United States. AT&T Wireless was then legally renamed New Cingular Wireless Services . Shortly after, new commercials were shown with the "AT&T" transforming into the Cingular logo, and with the Cingular logo's text turned blue to acknowledge the change. Some of the companies that comprised Cingular, such as BellSouth Mobility , ceased to exist when they were legally merged into

584-623: A deal estimated to be worth $ 39 billion in cash and stock. AT&T said the deal was expected to close in 12 months and was subject to regulatory approval. As of June 2011, it was being examined by the FCC. On August 31, 2011, the United States Department of Justice formally announced that it had filed a lawsuit to block the merger. On November 22, 2011, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recommended sending AT&T's proposed T-Mobile acquisition to an administrative law judge for review and

657-560: A hearing. On November 23, 2011, AT&T withdrew its application with the FCC regarding the acquisition of T-Mobile USA. They also indicated that they would recognize a $ 4 billion dollar accounting charge in the event of a deal collapse. That charge covers a $ 3 billion cash breakup fee and $ 1 billion as the market value for the spectrum they were required to transfer to T-Mobile if the deal failed to complete. On August 2, 2012, AT&T announced its intent to acquire NextWave Wireless . On January 22, 2013, AT&T announced its intent to acquire

730-516: A partnership between Verizon Communications and Vodafone until 2013). The company has largely maintained its lead over the years through further acquisitions (notably, of Alltel Wireless and TracFone) and through organic growth. surpassing T-Mobile and even AT&T in wireless. Over time much of its wireline area was spun off including northern New England to Consolidated Communications and other areas with landline businesses to both Frontier and FairPoint Communications . Lumen Technologies , Inc.

803-548: A protracted bidding war with rival RBOC Qwest, Verizon announced that it would acquire long-distance company MCI . The Verizon and MCI merger closed on January 6, 2006. Bell Atlantic Mobile became the largest wireless carrier in the United States through its merger with NYNEX Mobile, its acquisition of Frontier Cellular, its subsequent merger with GTE Mobile, and its joint venture with Vodafone (consolidating its AirTouch business into Bell Atlantic Mobile). The latter two transactions effectively formed Verizon Wireless (which remained

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876-434: A simpler name rather than using their formal and often lengthier name. Trade names are also used when a preferred name cannot be registered, often because it may already be registered or is too similar to a name that is already registered. Using one or more fictitious business names does not create additional separate legal entities. The distinction between a registered legal name and a fictitious business name, or trade name,

949-413: A trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Brazil , a trade name is known as a nome fantasia ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called razão social (social name). In some Canadian jurisdictions , such as Ontario , when a businessperson writes a trade name on

1022-466: Is also in the process of rolling out its 5G network based on the NR specification. Cingular, the predecessor to AT&T, supported legacy D-AMPS/TDMA and analog wireless networks. In March 2006, Cingular announced that these networks would be shut down by February 2008. As of March 31, 2007, Cingular ended TDMA supported for GoPhone (pre-paid) customers. On July 15, 2007, AT&T TDMA on 1900 MHz

1095-736: Is called a razón social . Baby Bell A Regional Bell Operating Company ( RBOC ) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1974 ( United States v. AT&T ) and settled in the Modification of Final Judgment on January 8, 1982. AT&T agreed to divest its local exchange service operating companies, effective January 1, 1984. The group of local operating companies were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies, which became known as

1168-581: Is headquartered in Brookhaven, Georgia . Originally known as Cingular Wireless (a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth ) from 2000 to 2007, the company acquired the old AT&T Wireless in 2004; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and adopted its name. Cingular became wholly owned by AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth. In January 2007, Cingular confirmed it would rebrand itself under

1241-498: Is important because fictitious business names do not always identify the entity that is legally responsible . Legal agreements (such as contracts ) are normally made using the registered legal name of the business. If a corporation fails to consistently adhere to such important legal formalities like using its registered legal name in contracts, it may be subject to piercing of the corporate veil . In English , trade names are generally treated as proper nouns . In Argentina ,

1314-475: Is planned through 2023. AT&T plans to cover 200 million people with 5G+ by the end of 2023. During the first quarter of 2006, Telephia reported that during an extensive nationwide test of major wireless carriers in 350 metropolitan markets around the country, Cingular dropped the fewest calls across the country. In turn, Cingular began aggressively advertising the "Allover Network", citing Telephia as "the leading independent research company." Telephia's report

1387-447: Is the most out of any phone ever sold. These sales propelled AT&T to strong Q2 results. The iPhone 5 was released on September 12, 2012. Apple reported selling 5 million iPhone 5's in the first weekend. AT&T activated 8.5 million iPhones in Q4 of 2012. Trade name In a number of countries, the phrase " trading as " (abbreviated to t/a ) is used to designate a trade name. In

1460-542: Is the world's largest wireless network test program, initially refused to provide details on its study, and a spokesman for the company has said, according to the Boston Globe , that "Cingular shouldn't have even mentioned the company's name to a reporter." The research company later stated that Cingular did, indeed, have a "statistically significant lower dropped-call rate than the competition across some market/time period groupings", but that Telephia had "no knowledge of

1533-460: The Baby Bells . RBOCs were originally known as Regional Holding Companies (RHCs). Three companies still exist that have an RBOC as a predecessor: AT&T , Verizon , and Lumen Technologies (formerly CenturyTel and CenturyLink). Some other companies are holding onto smaller segments of the companies. A "Baby Bell" is a local telephone company in the United States that was in existence at

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1606-527: The Communications Workers of America . The CWA represented roughly 15,000 of the previous 20,000 formerly AT&T Wireless employees as of early 2006. As of the end of 2009, the CWA website claims that roughly 40,000 workers of AT&T Mobility are represented by the union. Cingular Wireless was founded in 2000 as a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth . The joint venture created

1679-685: The U.S. Department of Justice , the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and AT&T Mobility's competitors (such as Sprint Corporation ) opposed the move on the grounds that it would substantially reduce competition in the cellular network market. In December 2011, in the face of both governmental and widespread consumer opposition, AT&T withdrew its offer to complete the merger. AT&T currently offers 3 tiers of its Unlimited Your Way plan, AT&T Unlimited Premium® PL, AT&T Unlimited Extra® EL, or AT&T Unlimited Starter® SL. Customers can also choose either

1752-466: The United Kingdom , there is no filing requirement for a "business name", defined as "any name under which someone carries on business" that, for a company or limited liability partnership, "is not its registered name", but there are requirements for disclosure of the owner's true name and some restrictions on the use of certain names. A minority of U.S. states, including Washington , still use

1825-399: The United States , the phrase " doing business as " (abbreviated to DBA , dba , d.b.a. , or d/b/a ) is used, among others, such as assumed business name or fictitious business name . In Canada , " operating as " (abbreviated to o/a ) and " trading as " are used, although " doing business as " is also sometimes used. A company typically uses a trade name to conduct business using

1898-491: The "Bell" names; however, they have been doing business under other names since 2002. Many of these names are still listed with the US Patent and Trademark Office as current trademarks, since these names are still considered in use. Many of these companies have since merged; by the end of 2000, there were only three of the original Baby Bells left in the United States. After the 1984 breakup, part of AT&T Corp.'s Bell Labs

1971-528: The 1984 breakup, these became fully independent as well. All nine local-exchange holding companies were assigned a share of the rights to the Bell trademark. After divestiture, AT&T Corp. was prohibited from using the Bell name or logo (with the notable exception of AT&T's Bell Laboratories ) and those trademarks which would be shared by the RBOCs and the two companies AT&T partially owned. Cincinnati Bell

2044-579: The AT&;T Value Plus VL or AT&T 4 GB plans. All plans come with unlimited talk and text, with unlimited data on all except the AT&T 4 GB plan. The higher tier plans include premium data that offers superior service, up to the allotted limit on each line during a bill cycle, plus other features like Mobile Hotspot and more.The AT&T Unlimited Premium® PL plan also includes unlimited talk, text, and data in 20 Latin American countries including

2117-543: The AT&T name upon merger closure on November 18, 2005. SBC began trading as AT&T Inc. on December 1, 2005, but began re-branding as early as November 21 of the same year. In 2006 AT&T Inc. purchased BellSouth . In 1997, NYNEX was acquired by Bell Atlantic (taking the Bell Atlantic name), which later, in 2000, acquired GTE , the largest independent telephone company. Bell Atlantic later changed its name to Verizon that same year. In 2005, following

2190-613: The AT&T name. Although the legal corporate name change occurred immediately, for both regulatory and brand-awareness reasons both brands were used in the company's signage and advertising during a transition period. The transition concluded in late June, just prior to the rollout of the Apple iPhone . On March 20, 2011, AT&T Mobility announced its intention to acquire T-Mobile US from Deutsche Telekom for $ 39 billion. If it had received government and regulatory approval, AT&T would have had more than 130 million subscribers. However,

2263-621: The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, in a larger deal including some former GTE companies with Verizon Communications . In December 2013, AT&T agreed to sell SNET to Frontier, with the sale closing in the second half of 2014. On April 1, 2016, Frontier Communications (FTR) completed the data conversions from the Verizon systems for the remaining three largest former GTE properties: California, Florida and Texas. On May 1, 2020, Frontier Communications (FTR) completed

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2336-481: The Cingular Interactive division, which became Velocita Wireless . Velocita was later purchased by Sprint Nextel . AT&T also offered Enhanced Push To Talk (PTT) services on smartphones. The original PTT service was sunset. The AT&T wireless data network began in 2002 as a Cingular initiative called "Project Genesis" that involved a GPRS overlay of the entire wireless network. Project Genesis

2409-588: The Cingular network was transferred to T-Mobile USA, with Cingular continuing work on the GSM facilities at AT&T Wireless sites. AT&T has a global sub-sea Tier-1 fiber network switching facility on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands , in conjunction with University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park . The following is a list of known frequencies that AT&T employs in

2482-482: The Dominican Republic, included at no extra charge. As of January 8, 2016, AT&T no longer offers two-year contracts for subsidized smartphones on consumer accounts. Customers who currently have two-year contracts are grandfathered until they upgrade to a new device, in which case they will have to choose from AT&T's NEXT installment plans for smartphones. Unlimited data plans may be throttled based on

2555-412: The FCC gave its final approval. The following month, AT&T announced that it would phase out the Cingular brand across all of its services and replace it with AT&T, with an accompanying advertising campaign branding the combined company as "The New AT&T." Commercials featured the orange Cingular "Jack" logo encircling the AT&T globe logo several times, dragging its blue bars behind it to form

2628-646: The U.S. retail wireless operations of Atlantic Tele-Network , doing business as Alltel , for $ 780 million. On June 24, 2014, Plateau Wireless announced the sale of assets and operations in eastern New Mexico and west Texas to AT&T, including wireless spectrum and 40,000 customers. In November 2014 and January 2015, AT&T acquired the Mexican wireless carriers Iusacell and Nextel Mexico to form AT&T Mexico . On October 9, 2019, Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico's parent company (Liberty Latin America), announced

2701-418: The U.S., trademark rights are acquired by use in commerce, but there can be substantial benefits to filing a trademark application. Sole proprietors are the most common users of DBAs. Sole proprietors are individual business owners who run their businesses themselves. Since most people in these circumstances use a business name other than their own name, it is often necessary for them to get DBAs. Generally,

2774-482: The United States. The following chart lists the networks that AT&T previously operated. As a result of its formation through mergers and acquisitions, as well as the rapid technological change in the wireless industry, AT&T operates the second-largest digital voice and data network within its United States footprint. AT&T's network footprint supports 4G and uses LTE / LTE-Advanced for simultaneous packet switched voice and data communications. AT&T

2847-587: The acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in a $ 1.95 billion deal. The sale was completed on November 2, 2020. In May 2021, the company began promoting AT&T and Liberty as a unified brand. In September 2021, Liberty began phasing out the AT&T brand and introduced a new logo. On February 22, 2024, a massive outage affected customers nationwide. In California , Nevada , Northern New Jersey and New York City , Cingular and T-Mobile USA maintained and shared

2920-430: The brand to market to business customers. Cingular president Stan Sigman concurred with BellSouth's position, indicating that the Cingular brand would continue but be sold under the AT&T brand where offered in packages with other AT&T services, such as data and wireline telephony. However, AT&T announced on March 5, 2006, that it would acquire BellSouth. The acquisition was finalized on December 29, 2006, when

2993-679: The company for $ 2.6 billion. On September 7, 2021, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets completed its purchase of Cincinnati Bell, Inc. and later rebranded the company name to AltaFiber. FairPoint Communications , an independent provider based in North Carolina , acquired Northern New England Telephone Operations . NNETO is an operating company split from the original New England Telephone to serve access lines in Maine and New Hampshire . The sale of these lines by Verizon to FairPoint closed in 2008. Telephone Operating Company of Vermont ,

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3066-433: The company's trademark rights. Following the company updating its logo in 2015 and subsequent reimaging of its trucks, the Bell logo has since been removed. Malheur Bell , an autonomous local phone company owned by Qwest , used the Bell name and logo until its merger into Qwest in 2009. Apart from historical documents, AT&T does not presently make active use of the Bell marks. Its local exchange companies have retained

3139-534: The county or city to be registered with the State Corporation Commission. DBA statements are often used in conjunction with a franchise . The franchisee will have a legal name under which it may sue and be sued, but will conduct business under the franchiser's brand name (which the public would recognize). A typical real-world example can be found in a well-known pricing mistake case, Donovan v. RRL Corp. , 26 Cal. 4th 261 (2001), where

3212-603: The deal, a high-ranking source allegedly close to the sale pointed the Barbados Daily Nation Newspaper towards some SEC filings made by Cingular which were said to establish an idea of the approximate sale price of the deal. According to the SEC filings Cingular was paid around $ 122 million, with much of that cost going towards the purchase of the former AT&T Wireless assets in Barbados by Digicel. At

3285-422: The end of 2006. As of early 2009, AT&T Mobility has completed its upgrade of the 3G to HSUPA , In 2011, it was reported that AT&T would upgrade its network to HSPA+ throughout the year, which it would market as offering 4G -grade speeds. On September 18, 2011, AT&T first launched LTE service in 5 U.S. metropolitan areas, with plans for serving 15 markets by the end of the year. AT&T's LTE rollout

3358-400: The end of the year. On February 22, 2022, AT&T discontinued its 3G UMTS network AT&T operates the second-largest 5G network in the U.S. with approximately 30% of the nation covered. AT&T uses low, mid, and high band frequencies. Mid and high band 5G is marketed as 5G+ and offers much faster speeds than low band. Continuous expansion of the 5G network, especially mid-band 5G+,

3431-409: The first one million original iPhones." In August 2008, Best Buy announced that it would begin selling the iPhone 3G for use on the AT&T network. In September 2008, AT&T announced that it would also sell the iPhone 3G in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The iPhone 4 was released on June 24, 2010. According to Apple, over 1.7 million iPhone 4 units were sold in the first few days, which

3504-520: The globe's blue stripes, before finally disappearing behind it, being backed by the chorus of the Oasis song " All Around the World ". AT&T added the color orange to its signage to reflect the change; AT&T would eventually remove orange in 2015 following another rebranding related to its acquisition of DirecTV . In November 2007, AT&T acquired Dobson Communications , who owned Cellular One and

3577-558: The importance of not dropping calls. That campaign is continuing." On June 29, 2007, Apple 's iPhone was introduced to the United States market, and AT&T was the exclusive carrier for the device within the United States until February 10, 2011, when the iPhone 4 was launched on the Verizon network. Teething problems with AT&T's billing process emerged soon after the iPhone's release, as early adopters started receiving exceptionally detailed monthly telephone bills with one of

3650-402: The law is to protect the public from fraud, by compelling the business owner to first file or register his fictitious business name with the county clerk, and then making a further public record of it by publishing it in a newspaper. Several other states, such as Illinois , require print notices as well. In Uruguay , a trade name is known as a nombre fantasía , and the legal name of business

3723-422: The most notable being the 300-page iPhone bill that was featured in an online video by YouTube influencer iJustine . Apple launched the iPhone 3G with AT&T on July 11, 2008. Although specific AT&T sales numbers are unavailable, Apple announced that over 1 million iPhone 3G devices were sold during the first three days — in contrast, according to Steve Jobs , Apple's CEO , "It took 74 days to sell

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3796-461: The named defendant, RRL Corporation, was a Lexus car dealership doing business as " Lexus of Westminster ", but remaining a separate legal entity from Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. . In California , filing a DBA statement also requires that a notice of the fictitious name be published in local newspapers for some set period of time to inform the public of the owner's intent to operate under an assumed name . The intention of

3869-457: The nation's second-largest carrier. Cingular grew out of a conglomeration of more than 100 companies, including 12 well-known regional companies with Bell roots. The 12 companies included: SBC Wireless had previously operated in several northeast markets under the " Cellular One " brand, while BellSouth's wireless operations incorporated the former Houston Cellular . Cingular's lineage can be traced back to Advanced Mobile Phone Service , which

3942-417: The operating company subsidiary AT&T Wireless PCS , which was New Cingular Wireless PCS . First announced on June 22, 2005, Cingular Wireless announced the intention to divest its Caribbean and Bermuda operations and licenses which it acquired from the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, to Irish -owned and Jamaica -based Digicel Group under undisclosed financial terms. In 2006, one year following

4015-428: The specific methodology (markets, time periods or statistical thresholds) that Cingular used for its 'lowest dropped call' claim." While AT&T has abandoned its verbal claim of "The Fewest Dropped Calls" in its commercials, it continues to show situations where two persons are speaking with each other on their phones, and one of the users' call drops. AT&T now states "We are still continuing to run ads that emphasize

4088-459: The surname(s) of the sole trader or partners, or the legal name of a company. The Companies Registration Office publishes a searchable register of such business names. In Japan , the word yagō ( 屋号 ) is used. In Colonial Nigeria , certain tribes had members that used a variety of trading names to conduct business with the Europeans. Two examples were King Perekule VII of Bonny , who

4161-469: The term trade name to refer to "doing business as" (DBA) names. In most U.S. states now, however, DBAs are officially referred to using other terms. Almost half of the states, including New York and Oregon , use the terms assumed business name or assumed name ; nearly as many, including Pennsylvania , use the term fictitious name . For consumer protection purposes, many U.S. jurisdictions require businesses operating with fictitious names to file

4234-568: The terms of the plan. AT&T also allows existing customers to stay on legacy right plans; however, reserves the right to terminate or require a plan change per its terms of service. Within AT&T's 21-state landline footprint, other AT&T services are offered at the AT&T retail stores, including signing up for home phone, internet, and U-verse . AT&T stores outside of its footprint offer wireless services. All AT&T company-owned stores nationwide sell DirecTV . A large number of AT&T Mobility employees are unionized, belonging to

4307-603: The time of the breakup of AT&T into the resulting Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). Sometimes also referred to as an "ILEC" (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier) they were the former Bell System or Independent Telephone Company responsible for providing local telephone exchange services in a specified geographic area. After the Modification of Final Judgment , the resulting Baby Bells were originally named: Prior to 1984, AT&T Corp. also held investments in two smaller and otherwise independent companies, Cincinnati Bell and Southern New England Telephone (SNET). Following

4380-489: The time of the merger, there were two networks: the historic AT&T Blue Network and the Cingular Orange Network. Both networks contained a mix of both TDMA and GSM facilities. Approximately 50,000 cell sites had to be melded together. From a technical standpoint, the "blue" and "orange" networks were considered different networks until integration was completed in 2005. Enhanced Network Selection (ENS)

4453-547: Was a roaming partner of AT&T, for $ 2.8 billion. The sale added 1.7 million subscribers and expanded AT&T coverage in various suburban and rural markets (including Alaska). On November 7, 2008, AT&T announced its intent to acquire Centennial Wireless for $ 944 million, expanding its coverage in the Midwest, southern U.S., and Puerto Rico. On March 20, 2011, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom announced that AT&T had agreed to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in

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4526-804: Was a subsidiary of AT&T created in 1978 to provide cellular service nationwide. AMPS was divided among the Regional Bell Operating Companies as part of the Bell System divestiture . With the exception of Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS, the digital network consisted of D-AMPS technology. The Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks used GSM technology on the PCS frequency band (1900 MHz). In October 2007, AT&T's president and chief executive officer Stan Sigman announced his retirement. Ralph de la Vega , group president-Regional Telecom & Entertainment,

4599-613: Was completed by the end of 2004. Later, this network was upgraded to EDGE across the GSM footprint. In 2005, AT&T launched a broadband network known as "BroadbandConnect", based on UMTS and HSDPA , to counter Verizon Wireless and Sprint 's EV-DO networks. UMTS service was launched on December 6, 2005, in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, San Jose, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Puerto Rico, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and expanded to all major metropolitan markets by

4672-642: Was completed in April 2011. In August 2011, the Qwest branding was retired and replaced by that of CenturyLink. CenturyLink rebranded to Lumen Technologies in September 2020. The former independent Bell System franchisee Cincinnati Bell , which was not part of the 1984 divestiture because AT&T held only a minority stake in the company, remains independent of the RBOCs. In December 2019, Cincinnati Bell announced that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners would acquire

4745-623: Was in stark contrast to the Consumers Union publication, Consumer Reports , based on a survey of 50,000 of its members in 18 cities, which criticized Cingular for static and dropped calls. Furthermore, J.D. Power and Associates consistently ranked Cingular at or near the bottom of every geographical region in its 2006 Wireless Call Quality Study, which is based on a smaller survey of 23,000 wireless users. This campaign had to come to an abrupt end. Telephia, which tests wireless networks by making over 6 million calls per year in what it claims

4818-553: Was known as Captain Pepple in trade matters, and King Jubo Jubogha of Opobo , who bore the pseudonym Captain Jaja . Both Pepple and Jaja would bequeath their trade names to their royal descendants as official surnames upon their deaths. In Singapore , there is no filing requirement for a "trading as" name, but there are requirements for disclosure of the underlying business or company's registered name and unique entity number. In

4891-413: Was named as president and CEO of AT&T Mobility. In February 2004, after a bidding war with Britain's Vodafone Plc (at the time a part-owner of Verizon Wireless), Cingular announced that it would purchase its struggling competitor, AT&T Wireless Services , for $ 41 billion. This was more than twice the company's trading value. The merger was completed on October 26, 2004. The combined company had

4964-632: Was noticeably slower than that of its competitor, Verizon Wireless , with the company stating that its then-proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA would be necessary. In November 2012, AT&T promoted the network as serving 150 million users, with plans to double its coverage by 2014. On January 1, 2017, AT&T discontinued its 2G GSM network. In April 2017, AT&T announced that it would upgrade its existing LTE networks in selected markets to support LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro features, marketed as "5G Evolution" (5G E ). In January 2018, AT&T stated that it intended to deploy 5G NR service by

5037-568: Was originally Century Telephone (CenturyTel), and took the Centurylink name in 2009 when it acquired Embarq , the former local operations of Sprint Nextel , which also included the former operations of Centel . The company, as CenturyTel, had acquired some Wisconsin Bell lines from Ameritech in 1998. Qwest , a Denver -based fiber optics long-distance company, had taken over US West in 2000. CenturyLink announced in April 2010 its intent to buy Qwest for US$ 10.6 billion. The transaction

5110-464: Was retired, while TDMA on 850 MHz remained. On February 18, 2008, AT&T Mobility officially ended service on their AMPS and remaining TDMA network, except for in areas previously operated by Dobson Communications ; the Dobson AMPS and TDMA network was shut down March 1, 2008. Networks formerly operated by AT&T predecessors including Cingular also include various paging services and

5183-556: Was split off into Bellcore , which would serve as an R&D and standards body for the seven Baby Bells. In 1997, Bellcore was acquired by Science Applications International Corporation where it became a wholly owned subsidiary and was renamed Telcordia . Southwestern Bell Corporation , which changed its name to SBC Communications in 1995, acquired Pacific Telesis in 1997, SNET in 1998, and Ameritech in 1999. In February 2005, SBC announced its plans to acquire former parent company AT&T Corp. for over $ 16 billion. SBC took on

5256-645: Was the last RBOC to hold the "Bell" name, but it rebranded as Altafiber in March of 2022. Additionally, Bell Canada , the former Bell Telephone Company of Canada (founded in 1880) and which started separating from the Bell System in 1956, and completely by 1975, continues to use the "Bell" trademarks, which it owns outright in Canada. Verizon continued to use the Bell logo on its payphones (including former GTE payphones), hard hats, trucks, and buildings, most likely intending to display continued use in order to maintain

5329-481: Was used to home cellular devices on either the "blue" or "orange" network during this process. On November 21, 2005, Ed Whitacre , then CEO of the newly merged SBC/AT&T, announced plans to market Cingular's service under the AT&;T brand. BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher countered that the terms of the joint venture allow either party to sell the service under another name, and that he believes they will be using

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